Me Against The World

Today they told me bout how dad's an alcoholic. Yesterday they said I am a "grandma's boy" and the day before that they talked about Aunt Bennie, who "couldn't just stay in the kitchen like all the other women." Everyday they come up with something new, and everyday it stings as fresh as before. I've tried everything to get them to stop; I been nice, I tried fighting, I told the teacher (she don't care a bit), they just don't get that they is making me real sad. I can't tell Mama or Pop bout it; they have too much else to worry about. I do believe that being a kid isn't supposed to be like this, all I's supposed to do is play and learn and have fun. Instead I gots to carry groceries and do odd jobs for strangers so I can just maybe buy a piece of fruit or something. "I can't make up my mind... Sometimes I want to be like you [Daddy]" (108) but I know that whatever I turn out to be, I'll be better off running away. Mom, Dad, Mama, Bennie: I'm sorry, I had to go. Y'all need the money and I needs to make my own life. Don't know where I'm going or what I'll do, but don't worry bout me none. I can take care of myself. Once I get some more money maybe I'll send some back if I can figure out where y'all live now. I don't know if you went out to Clybourne Park or not but I hope you didn't, someone is gonna get hurt if you do. I love all of you and I will see you again someday, I hope y'all can forgive me.

Love,
Travis

Skip about 30 seconds into the video and then read the piece.

I have no idea what I am doing

While others might say that they know how to express the deep emotion they feel through writing, I know something that they do not. Expression through writing is a funny thing- so very few people in every generation are truly gifted with it- it cannot be taught or learned, it simply is something one is born with. Or maybe its given by God, or the fates, those crazy mythological ladies with the string, who knows? The point is that in his poetry, Langston Hughes can make you feel things by just reading some lines about a black man singing the blues. He makes you realize just how much whites looked down their noses at blacks through saying things like, " With his ebony hands on each ivory key he made that poor piano moan..." Expression lives in many other types besides literary expression of course; there is musical, verbal, humorous, and behavioral. Everybody has at least one method of conveying emotion that they are truly gifted in. While some of these are more natural, like behavioral and verbal, the most powerful (in my opinion) is musical expression. Music can make you feel happy or sad or excited or calm all from some notes and some lyrics. The man in Weary Blues made his piano "moan," if there was ever a man who could make an instrument moan, its Jimi Hendrix. The things that man did to a guitar were unreal. He can make any sound emanate from his guitar, including the national anthem, all of it. He would use his guitar to purge his emotion, playing for hours every day. This fresh start given to him by the guitar is similar to how Jeannette Walls had fire in her life to signal a fresh start. Every time something in her life caught fire, she rebuilt and recovered. This may seem crazy, however, Jeanette used it to her advantage; she was able to see the significance of fire in her life and used it to be ready to rebuild. She expressed herself in her rebuilding. So next time you gaze into the night sky and stare at the wonder of outer space, think about the ways that you best express yourself; then use those ways to share your emotions with others. After all, if we can't communicate and share our ideas, what is the point of existing?